Existing laws tough enough: Patil

ET Bureau|

Sep 24, 2008, 03.20 AM IST

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NEW DELHI: With allies mounting pressure on the government against tightening the anti-terror laws, the UPA government has brought the government���s stand on the issue in line with that of the allies. Home minister Shivraj Patil on Tuesday said existing laws were ���tough enough��� to combat terror menace.

���Laws can be helpful, machinery can be helpful. Existing laws are tough enough, useful enough. They have to be implemented more effectively, more correctly, more meticulously,��� Mr Patil told a private TV channel. In other words, the fault lay with the implementation of the laws that are currently in use.

A week ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that the government was open to considering the demand for a tougher law. He had told a governors��� conference here that his government has no fixed, inflexible or ideological view on the matter.

���We are actively considering legislation to further strengthen the substantive anti-terrorism law in line with the global consensus on the fight against terrorism,��� the prime minister had said.

The home minister���s statement also signals a rejection of National Security Advisor M K Narayanan���s stand on a stringent anti-terror law. In a letter to the home ministry recently, the NSA had backed the Gujarat���s demand for its own state law on the lines of Maharashtra���s MCOCA.

But Mr Patil seems to disagree with this line. To him, MCOCA was not the solution. ���Blasts took place in Maharashtra when MCOCA was in place. You will be surprised to know that there is a law in Delhi also. Yet blasts took place,��� he said.

This explanation is being countered by those demanding stern laws with the argument that murders still take place despite Section 302 of the IPC. ���If this logic is to be extended to IPC, then Patil should get the government to scrap Section 302,��� said a security expert.

Mr Patil was unimpressed by the suggestions of the ARC headed by his party colleague Veerappa Moily. Asked about recommendations of the ARC that more stringent anti-terror laws were needed, Mr Patil said the panel did not make any specific suggestion. At the same time, the minister said he will not say he differed with the recommendations of the ARC.